And just how many of the LED rings has Sony sold. I'm sure they make a profit off something that ebay sellors make and sell for practically nothing considering the price Sony charges for that useless accessory. That ring is, however, an admission by Sony that such a product is needed in the system line.BrianSmith wrote:The ringflash could come back. It will depend on the number of people willing to buy one. Once again, Sony knows all the KM sales numbers and profit margins.
And don't tell me 4 flashtubes, 4 mini lights, a few wires, a plug and a plastic ring and diffusor is all that expensive to make. That's what the 1200 macro ringflash head is. The cheapest part. Both the MFC 1000 and the 2400 twin macro head system are more complex and more expensive to make. Because Sony has never offered the 1200 macro ringflash head they have no clue how many they would sell, or the relative sales of that vs the 2400 twin flash head system.
KM sales numbers are old old history now. A different time and a considerable different economy. Minolta found reason to sell the macro ringflash from the MF days until they ended operations. That's a very long time, so I expect that they did make money off it. I paid the price they asked several times, and if necessary would have paid more. It's that essential to my macro.
Note that Canon and Nikon have their versions of the macro ringflash. And Canon has the MP-E 65 1x-5x macro. No sign those companies are discontinuing those products. Is Sony competing or not?
Quite simply if Sony depends on only advice from bean counters they are lost as far as advancing and staying in the upper end of DSLRs. We are not buying beans, we are buying photography equipment that's designed for the photography we do.
DSLRs are a system as a whole. If you have a workable whole system then you have a chance of making a profit on the whole system. If you break it up into independent stand alone products each of which is managed on a independent profit and design basis it's unlikely to gain much interest in the long run in upper end photography. And that will take down the entire system.
Walt